Loblaw, Canada’s largest grocery retailer, recently named Professor David Fraser as scientific advisor on animal welfare. David has served as an advisor on animal welfare for the retail and restaurant sectors in the United States and for the World Organisation for Animal Health, and is a member of Canada’s National Farm Animal Health and Welfare […]

A paper co-authored by the AWP’s Cathy Schuppli, Nina von Keyserlingk, and Dan Weary has been recently published in the J. of Animal Science. The paper, entitled “Access to Pasture for Dairy Cows: Responses from an Online Engagement,” examined the perceptions of Canadian and American participants on the importance of pasture access for dairy cows, and […]

A new book “Dilemmas in Animal Welfare“, co-edited by UBC’s Dan Weary, was recently published by CABI. The book addresses some of the current debates in animal welfare such as tail docking, pet obesity, and neutering of feral cats. Dan has also contributed a chapter entitled “What is suffering in animals?”

Newly published in the Journal of Dairy Science is an article by Beth Ventura and colleagues with UBC’s Animal Welfare Program describing attitudes toward the common practice of separating the dairy cow and calf and birth. Results suggest that this practice is a highly contentious. Opponents of early separation contended that it is emotionally stressful […]

Post-doctoral scholar, Elisabeth Ormandy, and colleagues in the Animal Welfare Program and at the Canadian Council on Animal Care recently published two articles on the use of genetically-engineered animals in research. The first article describes public attitudes towards animal research, and the effects of invasiveness, genetic engineering, and regulation. The second article described the views […]

The Animal Welfare Program’s Dan Weary gave a plenary presentation at the 47th Congress of the International Society for Applied Ethology. Dan’s presentation was entitled ‘A new science of animal suffering’. Click here to read more about the ideas presented.

The Retail Council of Canada, including heavy hitters such as Safeway, Costco, and Walmart have announced they will transition to buying from pig farms that do not use gestations stalls for sows. To find out more read this article. For some context on what this might mean for other sectors in animal agriculture, see this […]

Erin Ryan recently defended her M.Sc. thesis on public attitudes to housing systems used for pregnant sows. Her online survey of 268 participants found strong support for group housing systems over the commonly used gestation stalls. The thesis also illustrated the importance of providing detailed descriptions, including imagery, in efforts to engage the public on issues […]

Elisabeth Ormandy, post-doctoral researcher in UBC’s Animal Welfare Program, has had her research profiled in FRAME’s most recent newsletter (see page 5). Elisabeth’s research shows a high level of public concern for the use of zebrafish in painful research. Fish are now the most widely used research animal in Canada and many other countries.

Post-doctoral scholar Elisabeth Ormandy and colleagues in the Animal Welfare Program have recently published an article on public attitudes towards the use of animals in research. The study focused on the commonly used procedure of ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) mutagenesis. This procedure is used to introduce genetic point mutations and study various genetic diseases, including cancer. The […]